Republicans on the Throne is a memoir spanning the author Tekalign Gedamu’s early life during the waning days of the old feudal order, his six-decade career in the United Nations, the African Development Bank, and the government of Ethiopia. The book describes the author’s university education and early career as an international civil servant. It focuses on Ethiopia’s modernization and her painful quest for democracy. For a brief spell, the author was privileged to be an eyewitness and a modest participant to that process.

Republicans on the Throneoffers a glimpse into the problems of a new educational system. The expansion of education left in its wake a demand for more fundamental reforms which Emperor Haile Selassie’s government was increasingly unable to meet. The result was a coup d’état in 1960 that failed, and another in 1974 that succeeded and triggered a ‘Marxist’ revolution that promised a new era of equality, democracy, and revitalized nationalism. The book examines closely the fundamental forces behind the revolution along with its failed attempts to improve the country’s fortunes on both the economic and political fronts.

Seventeen years later, left wing insurgents in the North who had been active throughout the revolution, overthrew the government, allowing the country’s northernmost province to secede and install a regime guided by yet another brand of Marxism (the Albanian variety) at a time when the ideology was entering a period of historic decline.

The book provides an assessment of the policies and practices of the new rulers, how the country is faring under their leadership, and concludes that major challenges remain in the struggle for democracy, fundamental freedoms, national cohesion, and the fight against poverty.

The legacy of the country’s past, the continuing struggle for democracy, and the likely direction of the country’s future are the central concerns of the last part of the book. While there is little doubt that the curtain has fallen on Ethiopia’s monarchy, this has not prevented a new breed of tyrants from taking power. Ethiopia’s heritage of autocracy therefore survives, but in a far less paternalistic and more sinister form than before. This leads many to be apprehensive about the prospects for democracy and other key challenges. But the author remains hopeful and offers his perspective in the concluding chapters of the book.

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART I: THE TWILIGHT YEARS OF MONARCHY

Chapter 1: A Glimpse of Feudal Life

Growing Up with Grandparents

Getting Started in School

My Father’s Side of the Family

Chapter 2: Being Groomed for a Post Feudal World

Guinea Pigs for a New Secondary School

Undergraduate Days

Graduate Studies in the United States

Chapter 3: Early Career and a Surprise Coup D’État

New York: Learning the Ropes

Addis Ababa: The First Few Months

The 1960 Coup D’État

Settling Down to Work

The Birth of the OAU

The Harvard Interlude

Chapter 4: More on the 1960 Coup D’état

The Antecedents of the Coup Germame Neway: The Angry Young Man Behind the Coup

Chapter 5: In the Service of the Imperial Ethiopian Government: The Initial Three Years

An Ethiopian UN Expert to Ethiopia

A Curious Call From the Prime Minister

The Technical Agency

The Development Bank of Ethiopia: Chairman Haddis Alemayehou and a Contentious Board Meeting

The Glasgow Interlude

Haddis Alemayehu and his Instructive Anecdotes

Chapter 6: In the Service of the Imperial Ethiopian Government: The Succeeding Three Years

Trials and Tribulations at the Planning Commission

Highlights of Development: The Story of Ethiopian Airlines

Socialist Countries and Ethiopia’s Development

More on Highlights of Development: The Man at the Centre

PART II: FIN D’EPOQUE

Chapter 7: The Monarchy on the Eve

The Gathering Storm

The Ominous Famine

An Army Mutiny, the Quadrupling of Oil Prices, and a Tottering Government

Chapter 8: The Interregnum: The Opening Four and a Half Months of Endalkatchew Makonnen’s Premiership

A Hesitant Minister

Uncertain Reforms

The Travails of Resignation

Crisis of the Congo Veterans

Birth of the Dergue and the Demise of Endalkatchew Makonnen

Chapter 9: The Interregnum: The Closing Forty-One Days of Michael Imru’s Premiership

PART III: TRANSITION TO AN UNCERTAIN REPUBLIC

Chapter 10: The Contrived Revolution

Forces Behind the Upheavals of February/March 1974

The Emperor Deposed

Chapter 11: March Towards Bloody Saturday

Enter Aman: A Much Acclaimed But Tragically Inadequate Leader

Bloody Saturday: The Final Act of Fin D’Époque

Chapter 12: The Initial Policy Orientations of the Military

Ethiopian Socialism (Hibrettesebawinet)

New Relations With Soviet Russia

Land Reform: Manipulating a Wrong-headed Policy

More Instances of Cabinet Manipulation

Military Obduracy

Chapter 13: The Parting of Ways

My Delayed Exit

Mengistu Becomes Top Dog

Looking for a Job and the Elusive Exit Visa

PART IV: EXILE YEARS AND THE BIRTH OF THE SECOND REPUBLIC

Chapter 14: The African Development Bank

A Nice Little Challenge

Negotiations with Prospective Member States

The Bank Goes Global

The Years of Growth

A Short Honeymoon

Vice President: A Post More Vicious Than Presidential

A Reluctant Vice-President and the Predictable Adieu

Chapter 15: Mengistu Falls and a Second Republic Takes Shape

The Cartographic Nationalist Flees and the Guerrillas Take Over

The New Rulers and Their Political Vision

Chapter 16: The Bank of Abyssinia: A Short Stint Turned Long

A Homecoming With Misgivings

Launching a New Private Bank

Initial Objectives

Hurdles Along the Way

Chapter 17: Retirement: Working With Charities

A Johnny-Come-Lately Rotarian

The Hamlin Fistula Hospital

The Gondar Development Association

The Institute of Ethiopian Studies

Jember Teffera’s Urban Renewal Project

Alemnesh Mogesse’s Children’s Support Project

Chapter 18: Retirement: A Disagreeable But Not Unexpected Episode

A Visit by the Federal Police

Detention and its Compensations: The Many Faces of Prison

Detention: Further Compensations

PART V: WHITHER ETHIOPIA

Chapter 19: Footprints of History

A Bird’s Eyeview of the Recent Past

The Heritage of a Multicultural Polity

The Legacy of a Nation State

A ‘Minimum Cultural Base’: Yet Another Legacy

Chapter 20: The Shape Of Things To Come

The External Environment

The Domestic Front

Globalization

Chapter 21: Conclusion

Further Thoughts on National Cohesion

Lessons From India and China

Final Words

APPENDIXES

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Notes

Glossary of Amharic Terms

Index

“A valuable autobiography by a patriotic Ethiopian who analyzes his country's government in the post-Menelik era. The author, a child of modern education, played a significant role in Ethiopian government and African banking, besides being active in numerous humanitarian causes. He is well placed to comment on the trends and aspirations of post-revolutionary Ethiopia.”

--Richard Pankhurst, author ofThe Ethiopians: A History

“Republicans on the Throne is a gripping story of how the little boy, born in a remote small town in Ethiopia’s far west, made it to the highest levels of achievement in Addis Ababa and – a rare thing – in continental Africa. Tekalign Gedamu moved in his career from a planner to a minister to a banker (in the African Development Bank and in Ethiopia). Therefore, it has much to tell us about the economic and political realities of the governments of Haile Selassie, Mengistu Haile Mariam and Meles Zenawi, because the author firmly sets the national context within which his life is narrated. It is an engaging book, which provides a good read for anyone interested in the unfolding drama of development in an African country through the eyes of one of its leading practitioners.”

--Shiferaw Bekele, Professor of Ethiopian History at the Addis Ababa University

“Tekalign Gedamu’s autobiography is a tourd’ horizon of Ethiopian history from the early reign of Emperor Haile-Selassie to the current EPRDF regime. Tekalign, who grew up in Gore and began his education in a monastery school, represents the cohort of Ethiopian intellectuals who benefited from Emperor Haile Selassie’s program of modern education and went on to ably serve their homeland in a variety of ways. His Republicans on the Throne is a well-written, straight forward account of what has happened in Ethiopia during the past three-quarters of a century. I recommend it highly.”

--Professor Theodore M. Vestal, author of The Lion of Judah in the New World